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A Chatbot Has ‘Passed’ The Turing Test For The First Time

A Russian chatterbot named “Eugene Goostman” has become the first to pass the Turing Test – an assessment of machine intelligence first proposed in 1950 by visionary mathematician, logician and codebreaker Alan Turing – by convincing 1 in 3 judges that it was a 13-year-old non-native-English-speaking Ukrainian boy. Here’s What Went Down: “Eugene” and four…

io9 Robert T. Gonzalez and George Dvorsky

How they made the classic Old Spice “I’m on a horse” commercial

I thought that the classic Old Spice “I’m on a horse” commercial was entirely made with green screens and video compositing. I was so wrong. This video shows that, for the most part, it was made with clever use of movable backdrops and camera work on a beach, in one single take. Reader bacondreamer found…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

A New Vulnerability Could Leave Smart TVs Exposed

A new hack that requires little more than a $250 1-watt amplifier could leave your smart TV vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack. It’s called the “Red Button” attack, after the red button on your remote that allows you to control the interactive features of your smart TV, and was discovered by two researchers at the…

Television Pranav Dixit

A Computer Program Has Passed the Turing Test For the First Time

This is big. A computer program has successfully managed to fool a bunch of researchers into thinking that it was a 13-year-old boy named Eugene Goostman. In doing so, it has become the first in the world to have successfully passed the Turing Test. The test is named after computer pioneer Alan Turing. To pass…

Artificial Intelligence Pranav Dixit

Okay, Now Orphan Black Is Just Showing Off

We get it: Tatiana Maslany can play any character she wants to play. But the truly exciting things are going down are going down at the Hendrix household, where proper housekeeping just became a matter of life and death. So a new guy breezes into town looking for Beth Childs. That’s exciting enough, even before…

io9 Lauren Davis

In The Flesh Reveals The Horrors Behind The Zombie Cure

Zombies have never been the scariest thing about In the Flesh, and even well-intentioned people have been capable of some truly horrific acts. And this episode shows that even the treatment for undead people—the entire premise of the show—came at a terrible price. I have to give In the Flesh a lot of credit for…

io9 Lauren Davis

Playing with Science and Technology for Fantastic Costumes

As convention season heats up, we get a steady stream of fan tributes to various media characters in the form of elaborate costumes. While this is independently awesome, I’m particularly fascinated by just how much science, technology, and mathematics goes into design. I don’t get to many conventions — this summer I’ll be visiting Comic…

Tech News Mika McKinnon

Venus Has Space Weather Explosions That Are Larger Than the Planet

A common space weather phenomenon on the outskirts of the magnetosphere, the magnetic bubble that surrounds the earth (and protects the surface of the planet from solar radiation) are “hot flow anomalies.” These are, in effect, enormous explosions. NASA researchers recently discovered that the same phenomenon occurs on Venus, except that these giant explosions can…

io9 Ron Miller

Success: Disney Will Add Princess Leia Toys To Its Merchandise Line

Three weeks ago, Disney said it had “no plans for Leia products at the Disney store.” This after announcing just one new female actress in the initial casting announcement for Episode VII. The toy announcement drew considerable criticism, including a barrage of tweets tagged with #WeWantLeia. Now, Disney says Leia toys are coming. “The current…

Movies Robbie Gonzalez

Astronaut Captures A Never-Setting Sun In The First Vine From Space

It takes about 92 minutes for the International Space Station to do a lap around Earth. In this, the first Vine from space, astronaut Reid Wiseman condenses one orbit into the span of about six seconds. But there’s something unusual about this timelapse. Crew members aboard the ISS can observe as many as 16 sunrises…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Stanley Milgram’s Chain Letter Experiment

Stanley Milgram got a lot of press for his experiment in which participants thought they were shocking people to death. We don’t give him credit for his other experiment – in which participants forward the ultimate chain letter. If you thought Stanley Milgram was only responsible for the inner sadness that comes from knowing that…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

D-Day battle images merged with photos of tourists on the same spots

I love to see before and after D-Day photos like the extensive series published in The Guardian or The Globe and Mail to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Allied Invasion. But I love to merge them into single photos even more, so couldn’t resist merging some of them in Photoshop. Above you can see…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

First person video of a 34-foot-high jump on a motorbike

Watch motocross freestyle biker Ronnie Renner clearing 34 feet (10.36 meters) to win the Moto X Step Up—a bike high jump competition at the Summer X Games 2014 in Austin, Texas. It’s amazing to see how high he got. According to Renner, the jump is really hard, especially the landing. The impact becomes a real…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

On June 15 Join in to Discuss Daphne Oram’s 1971 Book ‘An Individual Note’

A proper online discussion forum was recently introduced on Disquiet.com. The implementation is still in beta, but it seems to be functioning well. One of the things the forum will support is an occasional book club. After much deliberation, the first book we’ll be collectively reading and talking about is the out-of-print volume An Individual…

Tech News Marc Weidenbaum

This Week’s Top Comedy Video: Amazon’s Mystery Product, Revealed

This week, Amazon put out a teaser video of people reacting to a mystery product the company will reveal on June 18th. The first version of the video never showed the product, but we got our hands on the uncut video. Now you can see exactly what those smiling people had their fingers in. For…

Tech News SplitSider

The First Vine From Outer Space Packs One Earth Orbit Into Six Seconds

Astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this Vine shot from an observation window on the International Space Station this week. It shows one full orbit of the ISS around planet earth. It’s the first Vine recorded from outer space, and it’s literally out of this world. Reid is following in a great tradition of outer-space social media…

Space & Spaceflight Bob Sorokanich

Baby Fennec Foxes Are The Cutest Things You’ll See All Week

In April, The Living Desert Zoo became home to four baby fennec foxes – three males and one female. The public finally got a glimpse of them this week, when they were featured by The Desert Sun. Fennec foxes (Vulpes zerda) are native to the Sahara Desert and are typically nocturnal, which makes sense for…

Biology Jason G. Goldman

New Android Feature Wakes You Up For Your Bus or Subway Stop

Android Police just discovered a cool new Google Now feature: when you’re taking public transportation, you can set an alarm to make sure you don’t sleep through your stop. No more waking up stranded at the end of the line! Apparently, you just open Google Now while you’re on the train or bus, and it’ll…

Tech News Bob Sorokanich

This Is Why You Don’t Hide Under A Tree During A Lightning Storm

Via the US National Weather Service comes this staggering footage of a lightning bolt making matchsticks of a tree in Upstate New York. The footage was captured Tuesday by a surveillance camera at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY. Between 2006 and 2012, 127 Americans died from being struck by lightning. To avoid…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Transit Strikes and Corruption: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week

Another crippling transit strike for San Francisco! A mayor stealing the money that Venice should be using to save itself from flooding! It’s a depressing look at What’s Ruining Our Cities. The mayor of Venice is not only ruining the city, HE COULD BE THE REASON IT DROWNS As thousands of artists and architects from…

Tech News Alissa Walker

A Chatbot Has ‘Passed’ The Turing Test For The First Time

How they made the classic Old Spice “I’m on a horse” commercial

A New Vulnerability Could Leave Smart TVs Exposed

A Computer Program Has Passed the Turing Test For the First Time

Okay, Now Orphan Black Is Just Showing Off

In The Flesh Reveals The Horrors Behind The Zombie Cure

Playing with Science and Technology for Fantastic Costumes

Venus Has Space Weather Explosions That Are Larger Than the Planet

Success: Disney Will Add Princess Leia Toys To Its Merchandise Line

Astronaut Captures A Never-Setting Sun In The First Vine From Space

Stanley Milgram’s Chain Letter Experiment

D-Day battle images merged with photos of tourists on the same spots

First person video of a 34-foot-high jump on a motorbike

On June 15 Join in to Discuss Daphne Oram’s 1971 Book ‘An Individual Note’

This Week’s Top Comedy Video: Amazon’s Mystery Product, Revealed

The First Vine From Outer Space Packs One Earth Orbit Into Six Seconds

Baby Fennec Foxes Are The Cutest Things You’ll See All Week

New Android Feature Wakes You Up For Your Bus or Subway Stop

This Is Why You Don’t Hide Under A Tree During A Lightning Storm

Transit Strikes and Corruption: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week

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